True to their nature, the British Academy of Film and Television Awards, issued their decidedly stuffy list of nominees today, and Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount) led the way with 11 nominations apiece. No surprise there, The BAFTAs, as they are called in shorthand, generally lean to films with a UK lineage and to movies that are deadly serious about the craft of filmmaking. The Brits also seem turned off by movies that feel too indie or to distinct to the US.

In the past five years, British voters have snubbed American indies hits (Juno, Sideways), distinctly American stories (Michael Clayton, Crash, Ray, Sea Biscuit) and they have positively ignored American icon Clint Eastwood, failing to nominate his directorial efforts Letters From Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River, which were all at least nominated for Oscar Best Picture (Million Dollar Baby was the Academy Award winner).

2008 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs

Atonement, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood

Oscar winner – No Country for Old Men

BAFTA winner – Atonement

Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Juno, Michael Clayton

2007 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs

Babel, The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen

Oscar winner – The Departed

BAFTA winner – The Queen

Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Letters From Iwo Jima

2006 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs

Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck

Oscar winner – Crash

BAFTA winner – Brokeback Mountain

Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Munich, Crash

2005 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs

The Aviator, Finding Neverland

Oscar winner – Million Dollar Baby

BAFTA winner – The Aviator

Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Sideways, Ray, Million Dollar Baby

2004 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, Lost in Translation

Oscar winner – Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

BAFTA winner – Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Mystic River, Sea Biscuit

Make no mistake about it. The UK-produced Slumdog Millionaire was no longshot to dominate BAFTA nominations, and the Mumbai-set spectacle will clean up at the ceremony, but these nominations have generated some fodder for Oscar speculation.

First and foremost, the BAFTA voters have found a way to give The Dark Knight (Warner Bros) a total of 9 nominations, and still snub it for Best Picture. It’s not a shock that the stodgy Brits would disrespect a blockbuster comic book movie, but does this portend that Christopher Nolan’s modern masterpiece will be overlooked in the Best Picture category when next Thursday’s Oscar nominations are announced?

I, for one, hope not. It is time for the Academy Awards to include and embrace comic book movies as real art. There was a time when a serial killer movie wasn’t taken seriously, and then along came Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs, which is only the third movie in history to win Best Picture, Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins), Best Actress (Jodie Foster) and Best Director. (The only other two movies to accomplish the feat were It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). The conventional wisdom was that there was too much violence and too many f-bombs for an R-rated action pic like The Departed to win Hollywood’s biggest prize, but the Martin Scorsese classic won four Academy Awards including Best Picture. The Dark Knight absolutely deserves to make that sort of breakthrough.

The Reader (Weinstein) is exactly the sort of numbingly ponderous picture that serves as catnip for BAFTA voters. Five nominations, including Best Picture, for this adaptation of Bernard Schlink’ Holocaust-era novel, but there will likely be only two or three Oscar nominations for The Reader next Thursday. David Hare, for his adapted screenplay of Schlink’s challenging novel, and Kate Winslet, for her fascinating portrayal of Hannah Schmitz, will both likely be Oscar nominees. Also, Chris Menges and Roger Deakins could be nominated for Best Cinematography for their tag-team work.

The interesting wrinkle for Winslet is that that the British Academy has nominated her for Best Actress for both The Reader and Revolutionary Road (Dreamorks/Paramount). Even though she won for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes for The Reader, it is clearly a lead role. I think I speak for more than a few fans when I say, “A little Kate goes a long way.” Her double-win at the Globes turned her from the brilliant actress who had never won a Golden Globe or an Oscar to obnoxious high maintenance actress. At one point she was told by the broadcast director, to wrap up and responded, “You have no idea how much I’m not wrapping up.”

I still think Winslet is the likely winner of Best Actress for Rev Road, and although she will be nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Reader, she is unlikely to repeat the double-win, which may limit the number of times she tells herself to “Gather,” as she did during her second acceptance speech at the Globes. It would also allow Penelope Cruz the opportunity to win her richly-deserved supporting Oscar for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Changeling (Universal) is a very over-rated movie, and one of my least favorite of the year. Its 8 nominations is 8 too many for my taste, despite the fact that I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan. I just don’t think it is his best work (and Angelina Jolie’s one-note performance is ridiculously overwrought. It may be that BAFTA voters trying to make up for snubbing Eastwood for Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby and Letters From Iwo Jima.



Certain acting performances that are definite Oscar contenders were completely overlooked by the British Academy. Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married and Richard Jenkins for The Visitor are both too indie for the snooty Brits, Josh Brolin for Milk and Viola David for Doubt are both probably too specifically American. And, if they didn’t give him an acting nod for Million Dollar Baby, the British Academy definitely wasn’t going to give Eastwood an acting nomination for Gran Torino (Warner Bros).

As for BAFTA impact, I still like Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Dark Knight to be the five Best Picture nominees announced next Thursday. Best Actor nominations are likely to go to Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler, Sean Penn – Milk, Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon, Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino and either Brad Pitt – Benjamin Button, The Visitor‘s Jenkins or Leonardo DiCaprio for Rev Road. And, the likely Best Actress nominees are Winslet – Revolutionary Road, Meryl Streep – Doubt, Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married, Sally Hawkins – Happy-Go-Lucky and either Jolie – Changeling, Melissa Leo – Frozen River and Kristin Scott Thomas – I’ve Loved You So Long.

Here is the full list of the BAFTA nominees.

2009 BAFTA NOMINEES

BEST FILM

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Frost/Nixon

Milk

The Reader

Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DIRECTOR

Clint Eastwood, Changeling

David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Stephen Daldry, The Reader

Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon

Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Joe and Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading

J. Michael Straczynski, Changeling

Philippe Claudel, I’ve Loved You So Long

Martin McDonagh, In Bruges

Dustin Lance Black, Milk

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon

David Hare, The Reader

Justin Haythe, Revolutionary Road

Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

The Baader Meinhof Complex

Gomorrah

I’ve Loved You So Long

Persepolis

Waltz With Bashir

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Persepolis

Wall-E

Waltz With Bashir

BEST ACTOR

Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon

Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire

Sean Penn, Milk

Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS

Angelina Jolie, Changeling

Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long

Meryl Streep, Doubt

Kate Winslet, The Reader

Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder

Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Brad Pitt, Burn After Reading

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, Doubt

Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Freida Pinto, Slumdog Millionaire

Tilda Swinton, Burn After Reading

Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

BEST SCORE

Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Hans Zimmer / James Newton Howard, The Dark Knight

Benny Andersson / Björn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia!

A. R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire

Thomas Newman, Wall-E

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Tom Stern, Changeling

Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight

Chris Menges / Roger Deakins, The Reader

Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire

BEST EDITING

Joel Cox / Gary D. Roach, Changeling

Kirk Baxter / Angus Wall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Lee Smith, The Dark Knight

Mike Hill / Dan Hanley, Frost/Nixon

Jon Gregory, In Bruges

Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

James J. Murakami / Gary Fettis, Changeling

Donald Graham Burt / Victor J. Zolfo, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Nathan Crowley / Peter Lando, The Dark Knight

Kristi Zea / Debra Schutt, Revolutionary Road

Mark Digby / Michelle Day, Slumdog Millionaire

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Deborah Hopper, Changeling

Jacqueline West, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Lindy Hemming, The Dark Knight

Michael O’Connor, The Duchess

Albert Wolsky, Revolutionary Road

BEST SOUND DESIGN

Walt Martin / Alan Robert Murray / John Reitz / Gregg Rudloff, Changeling

Lora Hirschberg / Richard King / Ed Novick / Gary Rizzo, The Dark Knight

Eddy Joseph / Chris Munro / Mike Prestwood Smith / Mark Taylor, Quantum of Solace

Glenn Freemantle / Resul Pookutty / Richard Pryke / Tom Sayers / Ian Tapp, Slumdog Millionaire

Ben Burtt / Tom Myers / Michael Semanick / Matthew Wood, Wall-E

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Eric Barba / Craig Barron / Nathan McGuinness / Edson Williams, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Chris Corbould / Nick Davis / Paul Franklin / Tim Webber, The Dark Knight

Pablo Helman, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Shane Patrick Mahan / John Nelson / Ben Snow, Iron Man

Chris Corbould / Kevin Tod Haug, Quantum of Solace

BEST MAKE UP & HAIR

Jean Black / Colleen Callaghan, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Peter Robb-King, The Dark Knight

Daniel Phillips / Jan Archibald, The Duchess

Edouard Henriques / Kim Santantonio, Frost/Nixon

Steven E. Anderson / Michael White, Milk

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Hunger

In Bruges

Mamma Mia!

Man on Wire

Slumdog Millionaire

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter.